My daughter has an extreme constipation problem, and I am looking for ideas to help her. She will hold in her bm until it gets huge and hard and dry because she thinks it's going to hurt, and then it DOES end up hurting, because she held it in so long! She will get REALLY cranky and walk sort-of funny and tell me her bottom hurts.

We talked about it to the pediatrician the last 2 times and she recommended a daily laxative (a children's vegetable-based one) for her for a few months, and then to start trying to wean her off the laxative. She's had the laxative for about 4 months now, but we are having a really hard time weaning her off the laxative. We gave her a stool softener once, and that worked quite well, but they are very bitter tasting, and she refuses to eat it again.

Things that do sometimes help: hot baths, increased physical activity, bending her legs when I see her straining, water with dishsoap in it (I do NOT feed this to her, but the girls "help" me do the dishes and they drink the water, despite ALL of my efforts to the contrary!), and greasy food

I have increased her fiber and fluids to the point that she ate practically nothing but vegetables and fruit for about a month, and I saw no noticable difference.

The weird thing is, she has an identical twin sister who eats exactly the same foods as she does, with no problems like this at all.

So, sorry this is so long, but I am really looking for some gentle answers for her problem. I'm hoping to solve this problem myself to avoid increased medical intervention.

We have this problem in our house too. Definately increase fiber....add prunes and pears and prune and pear juice, stay away from binding things like bananas, applesauce, chocolate (choc. milk) rice and toast. Milk can be binding too. Add lots of water to the diet. We also add Karo Syrup (clear) to milk...this seems to help a little too. The doctor told us to add it rather than laxatives which can become addicting.

My kiddo has this problem and our doc. said absolutely NO laxitives, because your body gets used to needing it and won't work on it's own. He said a little sprite and prune juice, or prunes. There is also prune sauce in the baby food section. Tastes like apple sauce, or you could mix with applesauce too. Lots of water like already suggested and tons of fruits, veggies and introduce fiber slowly. Flax seed added to baked goods or on yogurt helps too. That makes me go big time.

My son had this problem as well, he would sit and cry on the toilet. We used prune juice and some times had to use a sapasitory (not quite sure on my spelling). Hope it gets better for your little one. GL

My ds has had this same problem for two years and no pedi really took us seriously until a few months ago. We are working on altering his diet; but have ended up using a laxitive too. Now we go from hard as a rock to can't hold it in, we just want a happy medium; but can't seem to find it. We are trying cutting dairy from his diet and maybe even wheat. One thing to avoid is too much fiber. If you use too much fiber without significantly upping the water then the fiber has the OPPOSITE effect, we learned this the HARD WAY, no pun intended.

My DD2 has had severe constipation from birth. the only baby in the history of mankind that was constipated and EBF. I have learned alot on the subject.

#1 Cows milk is HORRIBLE for this. one slice of cheese will give her a fit. She can have NO milk. NO cheese, but she can have yogert, ( it is processed differently and has good enzymes

#2 lots of veggies and little meat. veggies are a very natural way of getting things moving.

#3 very little to none processed foods. You never know what these can do to your body and they just arent good for you

#4 TONS of water

#5 daily warm baths to help relax

#6 put baby on potty after every meal. this will encourage them to go after everymeal. our bodies are designed to input mean we need to output. From what i have read one of the best signs of health is have a normal healhty BM ( not diarrhea or constipation) after every meal. BUT most definatley after breakfast. it is a sign our brain sends to our bodies, to have a BM in the morning.

My DD was prescribed ummmm miralax, I gave it to her 2 times and it gave her the WORST tummy aches. I refuse to give it to her again. We hav changed her eating habbits and give her time to poop every morning. ( which means we have to get up earlier since school for her starts at 8) In the last year I have had to give her 2 enemas becaseu she was impacted.
I cannot stress enough about the milk. and get her tested for food allergies. Aslo my dd was tested for hirschprungs, since she had a fetal bowel obstrictin discovered at 23 weeks. She has gone thru so many tests studies but in the end it is diet.

Good luck to all that suffer witih this. after 4 years of trying to figure it all out, we did. it is a long road and i just want ot cry fo rheer when she cant poop. I have IBS with constipatino so I feel her pain. and now my 2yo is showing signs of IBS as well. so off to happy diet land for all LOL

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Melissa, At home, homeschooling, proud LDS Mom to 3 miracles on Earth, 5 angels in heaven, Nothing butt cloth is now closed. Thank you for 5 years of support.

Thanks, mamas - many of these ideas we have tried / are trying . . . raisins do not have that effect on my kiddos. I am beginning to "suspect" with mother's instinct that something else is wrong, but I have no idea how to begin going about finding out what it is. Eating meat seems to help her, too, though we don't eat a whole lot of meat here.

What is priobiotics?

Keep the ideas coming! She's having a particularly difficult time right now . . . crying out in her sleep. It breaks my heart to see her in pain.